Polls monitoring body Election Working Group (EWG) on Wednesday said Tuesday’s elections in Dhaka and Chittagong city corporations were full of fraudulent practices and violence.
“For the misdeeds that were committed during the voting in Dhaka and Chittagong city corporations have made the process not at all 
trustworthy to us,” EWG director Abdul Alim said reading out a statement during a briefing at the National Press Club.
The EWG’s observers stationed in 619 polling centers during the ballot came up with common observations – intimidation of agents of rivals, stuffing of ballot papers by capturing centres, and violence that plagued the elections.
The EWG observed that those ‘actions’ were aimed at changing the election results.
It further pointed out that the pro-government activists were engaged in the incidents of violence and vote rigging.
The steering committee members of EWG Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, Taleya Rehman and Kamrul Hasan replied to questions from the newsmen.
The EWG statement said the observers themselves witnessed vote rigging while visiting 55 centres in Dhaka North, 46 in Dhaka South and 37 centres in Chittagong city areas.
Voters were found to have been threatened in 33 centres in Dhaka North, 39 in Dhaka South, and 30 centres in Chittagong, the EWG observers reported.
The EWG observed that violence occurred in 66 centres in Dhaka North, 26 in Dhaka South, and 72 centres in Chittagong.
The EWG said the polling agents of the opposition were forced out of the centres in many cases.
-Prothom Alo
